Creating a Container Garden with Mini Plants

 I retrieved a broken cement oval planter from a friend's garden shop.

 Last Fall I used Gorilla Glue to piece the planter together and left it out during the winter months to see if the glue would hold the pot together.

 The glue puffs out a bit when drying, but that was inside the planter pot.

 This month I filled in two missing chunks with Bondo and repainted the outside with white outdoor acrylic house paint.

 When I went to the garden center I looked for miniature plants that were in a gray to white to light green spectrum, to be compatible with the flag stones  on my porch.

I  selected Sedum Makinoi Variegata

,

 Sedum Cauticola,

 and Sempervivum Arachnoideum Hens & Chicks.

 I had an oval plastic pot that just fit inside the concrete planter.

I used potting soil,

 to fill in the spaces after placing the plants in the plastic pot.

 A neighborhood friend gave me some plants that she could not take on her move out of state.  This miniature sedum was adopted, and used with the other three.

 I tucked it into the spaces in the front of the container.

 After sprinkling more potting soil into the gaps, I brushed off extra soil from the Hens & Chicks.

Water was added next, and daily for the next few days.

 The plants responded well on my stone porch which gets afternoon sun.

 This is the planter two weeks later, filing in with new growth.

An inspirational book on container gardens is, For Your Garden, Pots and Containers by Warren Schultz, 1997, Barns &Noble Books, New York.  It has wonderful ideas about combining plants, both flowers and vegetables in an array of planters.

Three Books for Summer Reading

Here are three books that I recommend for summer reading.

The first is Museum,  (2007, the Penguin Group) a view behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This book was written by Danny Danziger, whose mother was Gigi Guggenheim Danziger.  For me, the tours, department by department, of New York's massive art museum were fascinating.   Mr. Danziger collected more than fifty interviews of museum personnel, from the director of the museum, Philleppe de Montebello, to some of the staff  " who create and maintain the Met's environment - the florist, the security guard,  and the cleaner."   In addition to the directors of various  departments and collections, you will read about some of the "philanthropists and millionaires who keep the museum's life-blood flowing." The  interviewees, give their personal picks of the most precious or interesting example under their care.  If one made a list of these artworks, a wonderful day, or week maybe, of playing scavenger hunt would result.  Something I plan to do.  Since much of what I have learned about art and antiques has come from countless visits to museums, I loved this insider's  behind the scenes look at the Met.

The next selection   The River of Doubt,  written by Candice Millard  (2005, Random House) is the chronicle of a very ambitious trip through the Amazon made by President Theodore Roosevelt after his defeat in  1912 for a third term.   Candice Millard, not only wrote an outstanding account of this trip through an historian's eye, but as a former writer an editor of the National Geographic, she gives amazing details of the natural surroundings, the plants and animals, and the culture of the uncharted areas of the Amazon jungle, through which  Roosevelt and his party  struggled.  One of the aspects of this book which grips the reader is the relationship of Roosevelt and his son, Kermit.  With Brazil's famous explorer, Candido Mariano, Teddy and Kermit,  and the adventurer's party, challenge themselves to find this  legendary river, and to chart its existence. The extreme hardships that the experienced trailblazers underwent, only adds to the folklore of one of the most dynamic  U.S.presidents. The dedication to reporting through journals, of this grueling venture, as Roosevelt and his party recount unimaginable details of larger-than-life obstacles to their quest, makes a contribution to history as well as to the legend that is Roosevelt.

My third pick for this summer is Game Change, written by John Heilmann and Mark Halperin, (2010, Harper Collins.)  In my attempt to understand the upcoming election of 2012, I was handed this book about the election of 2008. This is a third behind the scenes book of an adventure of a different sort, becoming a U.S. president.  John Heilmann, a former writer for The New Yorker,  and Mark Halperin, the political analyst for Time,  reconstruct the campaign for the 2008 election after conducting "more than three hundred interviews with more than two hundred people conducted between July 2008 and September 2009.  Almost all of the interviews took place in person."   As a contrast to the ethical and gutsy attitudes of the Roosevelts and their fellow searchers, the actors in this saga fall incredibly short.  As a woman, I was confirmed that there is yet a bias against seriously considering a female for the U.S. highest office.   Although clearly the more experienced, fearless,  and worthy candidates, both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin come out in this tale, better than their male counterparts who are consistently less admirable.  A great read for anyone who thinks that money and the press do not influence elections.

Have fun with these unusually connected books. 

Cream of Vegetable Soup

I grew up eating soup for breakfast instead of cereal with milk.  Cream of vegetable soup seems great on a winter's day, no matter which meal.

 Gather fresh and frozen vegetables, and a large cooking pot.

 I keep recipes in a binder in clear sleeves.  Most of the time I alter recipes, maybe it's due to being left-handed, or because I was trained in art school by wonderful abstract expressionists. 

 Love red potatoes with the skins on.  Cut into chunks.  The original recipe directed me to puree everything, but I like chunky soup.  Either was is fine.

 I nuked them in my Corningware casserole until they were half cooked.

 Chop up those darling fresh carrots that are now sold in large bags.

 A large can of chicken broth, 49.5 Oz's.,  speeds things up.

I had a bag of corn,

 and string beans in my freezer.

 When I buy fresh parsley, I freeze most of it.  So I needed to chop it a little and remove some of the large stems.

 The supermarket in town, often puts one sort of vegetable on sale.  Usually there is too much to eat right away. I cut up and freeze the rest, this time zucchini.

 I had broccoli heads frozen, and they too needed to be chopped.

 Spoon in the cooked potatoes with the skins on.

 Chop around four or five stalks of celery.

Add to the pot.

Chop onions, and add.  I used two large ones.

 Now it is time to make the Roux, which thickens the soup.

 I use my Lodge cast iron small frying pan, marked "5sk" on the bottom.  Melt a stick of butter and spoon in two tablespoons unbleached flour slowly.

 Using a flat wooden mixing stick, I work the flour into the melting butter.

 It is almost smooth, but it's hard to do this and take photographs at the same time!

 Pour 1 1/2 cups half & half slowly into the roux.

 Stir.

 Pour roux into the soup.

Season with salt

 and fresh ground pepper.

 Simmer for half an hour or until you like the consistency.  this is my large stainless Revereware pot, with its copper bottom.

I made this much soup and it is ready to take for lunch, (small containers) or pull out for the family, (large containers.)  It freezes well.

This is a book that I got from my sister-in-law.  Food Cures. Quite interesting reading, considering that I prefer  a "back to basics" approach to health; food rather than prescriptions.  This soup is worth a try, and the book is worth a read.  Cheers from the Jarvis House.

Cream of Vegetable Soup

1 1/2 cups vegetables,
(your favorites, depending on the vegetables and how thick you like the soup)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup celery
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 large can chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups half &  half

First Snow of the Year 2012

Yesterday we had the first snowfall here in Western Suffolk County, Long Island, NY.  Compared to last year this was just a small amount of snow, 3-4 inches.

The new back steps before I swept the snow away.

The beautiful twisting branches of my split leaf maple.

One of the large box wood shrubs.  If there had been more snow I would have bopped it with the corn broom to relieve the weight on the branches.

The road looking north.

I keep the stalks on the Miscanthus until Spring so that I can see this.

Old cast and wrought iron chairs.

The back back before footprints.

Terra Cotta flower pots on the potting benches.

This image of the front yard shows the missing large trees on the lot line.

The old sun dial.

Potted Marigolds seed pods from last fall.

Leylands on the north side, which have really done well.

Holly berries out front.

Looking south.

Essentials: corn broom, metal snow shovel, insulated duck boots, and fuzzy  warm inside boots.

 

Lastly, time for tea, chicken soup and a new book written by my friend, Elizabeth Wix. Fortunate Child.   What a great Saturday!